


The Burning Ritual

by BazineApologist



Series: Modern Witchcraft [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Fluff, Forbidden Love, Misunderstandings, Mutual Pining, Neighbors, Witches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-01
Updated: 2019-01-07
Packaged: 2019-09-25 23:54:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17131091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BazineApologist/pseuds/BazineApologist
Summary: Luke Skywalker has two main rules for his coven: 1) keep magic secret, and 2) no mortal/witch relations.When modern witch, Rey Niima, performs magic in the presence of her mortal neighbor Kylo Ren, she worries she’s broken the first rule and put the whole coven at risk. The second rule, she’s been daydreaming about breaking for months. She can’t help it when Kylo is so hot and nerdy and utterly endearing.With one rule potentially broke, what’s one more?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kuresoto](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kuresoto/gifts).



It was an hour before midnight on December 31, when Rey Niima cracked open the door of Apartment 7 and peered out onto the dark landing. The potent smell of burning sage clung about her and her apartment, and slowly seeped into the small communal space. She hoped the smell would dissipate before it drew any unwanted curiosity.

A few weeks ago Rey’s downstairs neighbor had mistakenly received (and then opened!) her shipment of potion-grade lavender oil and powdered mandrake root. (Rey thanked the Goddess that the more conspicuous eye of newt had been out of stock when she ordered!) The mixup had led to a long conversation about commercialized New Age practices and pop-astrology that Rey was not eager to repeat. But at least her neighbor hadn’t suspected anything.

Finding the hallway empty, Rey stepped out properly and began rifling through her aged leather satchel, looking for her keys. She pushed aside her heirloom spellbook and several loose sheets of parchment in order to search amongst the tinctures and talismans that littered the bottom of her bag. 

When she still came up empty, Rey let out a frustrated huff and glanced around again to make sure she was still alone on the landing. Seeing that she was, she placed her hand on her front knob and muttered a quick incantation. There was a soft clicking sound as the lock engaged, entirely without the aid of her misplaced key.

Turning away from the door and resuming her rifling, this time in search of her one non-magical human indulgence—an iPhone—Rey was too distracted to notice the solid mass in front of her until she collided into it… or him. 

Rey startled and looked up to see herself pressed against the expansive chest of her across-the-landing neighbor, Kylo Ren. She stepped back immediately, a flush spreading up her neck and over her face.

“Sorry!” she exclaimed, feeling herself blush even harder as she desperately tried to banish the feel of his firm upper body from her mind. “I wasn’t looking where I was going,” she explained, looking up and catching his eye. 

Kylo was standing on the stairs, one step shy of the top of the landing, putting him just about eye-to-eye with Rey. She had never had such a good vantage point from which to study his face before. (And she had studied him a lot. Usually from a distance. Always from at least a few inches below.) She’d never noticed the warm golden undertones in his deep brown eyes or the specific placement of the moles on his face... she had to restrain herself from reaching up and stroking his pale, perfect cheek.

“It’s fine,” he told her softly. “You looked busy. I was quiet. I didn’t want to interrupt,” he tried to reassure her, running a hand through his thick, inky waves.

But it wasn’t reassuring. In fact, at his words, all the color drained from Rey’s face and she immediately forgot her lustful wanderings. 

How long had he been on the stairs? Had he seen her trick with the lock? Did he suspect her? Had her propensity for losing her keys just accidentally exposed all of witchkind?

“Are you okay? You’re looking really pale all of the sudden,” Kylo said, reaching an arm out as if to comfort her, before seeming to change his mind and withdrawing. The withdrawal felt like a slap to Rey.

“I’m fine,” she said in a tone that clearly portrayed she was not fine. “I just... remembered I’m really late for something!” She knew she needed to figure out what, if anything, Kylo had seen, but the whole encounter had just made her too flustered and mortified. And she really did have somewhere she needed to be.

She hefted her bag securely over her shoulder and made to maneuver past Kylo. At the same time, though, he stepped up onto the landing, looming over Rey once again. “Oh. Yeah. Of course.” He ran a hand through his hair, clearly a tick for him. “It’s New Year’s Eve. You’re… you. Of course you have plans.” He sounded… wistful? It confused Rey.

They were standing very close together now on their tiny landing. Rey felt her heart start beating faster, and not just from the possibility that she had just violated the single most important magical rule: keep magic secret.

She took a hitched breath and pushed past Kylo, her bag bumping into his broad chest as she fled. She just needed to get away from him. She couldn’t think rationally with his intense eyes boring into her and his scent filling her nose (it was musky and spicy and mouthwatering).

If Kylo _had_ seen anything, he wasn’t very likely to act on it in the next few hours, she told herself during her hasty exit. She had time to fix this… if there was even anything to fix. She tried to calm down and steady her breathing.

“Rey!” she heard him shout after her as she bounded down the stairs. “Rey, just wait a second!” 

She didn’t wait. She didn’t even turn around.

—

“Rey! Finally! It’s almost midnight and we need to get started,” cried a petite young woman with thick black hair and almond-shaped eyes. She reached out for Rey’s hand and pulled her past the tree line.

“I’m so sorry Rose,” Rey whispered, as they wandered deeper into the woods, away from any marked path or trail. “I bumped into my neighbor—”

“Your neighbor?” Rose squealed, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively. “Not the bespeckled brickhouse from across the hall?”

“His name is Kylo. And… yes.”

Rose laughed. “When you say bumped into him…?”

“I mean we literally collided. But, Rose, just before that—”

Rose’s cackle interrupted Rey before she could tell her about the key. “Sure, Rey. You accidentally fell right up against his rock hard body… Maybe next time you’ll get even luckier and fall onto his dick!”

“Rose!” Rey spluttered. “I’m not… I would never… Luke says…” 

“Yes, Rey. I know the rules. No witch/mortal relations. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have a crush on him. And it certainly doesn’t mean I can’t tease you about said crush. Now come on, I think I hear Finn calling,” she added, referring to Rey’s best friend, business partner, and coven-mate.

Just a moment later, Rey and Rose stepped into a large clearing. A bonfire, the flames an unnatural shade of silvery purple, flickered and hissed at the center. 

Finn greeted them with an impatient, “Finally! We’ve already built the fire and made the first offering.” He pulled Rey in for a quick hug before breaking away to kiss Rose solidly on the mouth.

Rey felt a twinge of something (jealousy? longing?) as she watched her two closest friends embrace. She looked away, trying to give the couple a moment of privacy, and focused instead on the dancing flames of the large fire.

As she focused her attention on the flames, they seemed to twist and curl into the shape of a face. Rey stepped closer, entranced by the image. As the prominent nose and pouty lips materialized in the fire, Rey released a breath. Kylo.

“Ah-hem.”

Rey was knocked out of her hallucination by the sound of a throat clearing. She looked across the fire to see their coven leader and Rey’s master, Luke, staring straight at her, a searching expression on his face. 

Color rushed to her cheeks. There was nothing in their code that forbid her from having _thoughts_ about a mortal. Hell, some witches even believed sex with mortals was fine as long as no attachment was formed. But she couldn’t shake the feeling that she had done something wrong by seeing Kylo’s face in the flames.

Luke’s eyes narrowed and his gaze intensified. There was something familiar about that intensity, but Rey couldn’t quite place it. She felt caught in it, unable to look away until the fire roared up and broke the eye contact for her. 

When the flames died down again, Luke was no longer focused on her. He called out to his gathered coven, “The witching hour is nearly upon us. The year is taking its final gasping breath. Let us gather around the fire and begin the ritual.”

Rey moved to form a circle with her coven-mates. Finn and Rose stood on one side, their friend Poe on the other.

Poe smiled at her before leaning in to whisper, “Did you curse Luke or something? He keeps looking at you, and he does _not_ seem happy.”

Rey looked up, only to see Luke quickly shift his gaze away from her. “We’ll start with the releasing,” he announced to the small crowd. “Please ready yourselves.”

Rey turned back to Poe and shrugged. She busied herself with rummaging through her satchel, trying to pretend she was unbothered by Luke’s stares.

Luke was a powerful magical practitioner, but, as far as Rey knew, even he hadn’t advanced to mind reading. There was no way he knew about her feelings toward Kylo. And anyway, there was nothing to know! They were just neighbors! Rey’s feelings were neighborly!

She fixated on this last thought as she pulled the first piece of parchment from her bag. “I Release…” was written at the top of the page in dragon’s blood ink. Rey had carefully manifested and recorded each item during a personal magical ritual that morning. 

“All together, please,” Luke said. The gathered voices joined with his as he continued, “Goddess: In this season of rebirth and resolution, please release us from these limitations…”

As they finished the incantation, each person cast into the fire what they hoped to leave behind in the dying year. Rey watched as the purple flames shifted black, symbolizing the consumption of a year’s worth of the coven’s negative energy. 

The shadowy flames curled around her parchment, slowly burning away the edges and turning it to ash. A familiar line of text caught her eye just before the page was consumed entirely: _the hope that my parents will come back for me_. Rey took a steadying breath as she watched the fire burn away the last vestiges of her childish devotion to the people that had thrown her away. 

“Now then, on to the invocations,” Luke announced. 

Rey re-grounded herself and fished the second parchment out of her bag. “I Invoke…” it read, this time in dove’s blood ink. Rey’s inks, of course, were synthetic. Actual blood coagulated too quickly and turned a sickening shade of brown. But the synthetic versions still worked to enhance and empower magical writings. Dragon’s blood was her all-purpose magical ink. Dove’s blood she saved for special spells, ones involving wishes and requests from the Goddess. 

Her cheeks turned rosy as she remembered items four through six on her list: _4\. The capacity to love without fear of abandonment. 5. A partner to give that unguarded love to. 6. Great sex with a partner who cares about my pleasure (i.e., likes giving oral)._

The group began reciting the second part of the ritual, and cast their hopes for the coming year into the flames. Rey made sure to cast her parchment into the fire upside down, so no one saw her specific invocations. She didn’t need Poe teasing her about her lack of a sex life.

As the pages caught, the fire shifted again, this time becoming a hodgepodge of different colors and shades. Each shade represented a different promise for the new year. 

The portion before Rey flickered in shades of pink and red. Poe turned from his own mostly golden flames to examine Rey’s fire. He then turned to Rey, eyes bright and mischievous.

“Red, huh?” he said, a roguish grin on his face. “The Goddess is promising you good sex in the New Year.” 

Rey’s cheeks flamed, her attempt to avoid Poe’s teasing dashed by the will of the Goddess. “It’s not totally red!” she exclaimed. “And you know as well as I do that red can mean a lot of things.”

“Oh yes. I’m so sorry. I see some pink in there too. So that’s—” he raised a finger as he ticked off each item “—sex, passion, love, and romance. Am I missing anything?”

“Red could mean… um… power. And pink… friendship?” She could feel her face getting hotter.

“Oh! Power. Are you planning some sort of hostile takeover of the shop next door? Or are you giving up floristry to pursue political ambitions?”

“Hardy-har-har,” she responded.

She didn’t like the indulgent look Poe was giving her. It made her feel like a particularly stupid child, an odd contrast to the very adult subject matter they were discussing. 

Poe opened his mouth to say something else Rey was sure would be patronizing, but before he could Finn blurted out, “Ooo! Red. Nice! Looks like Peanut’s got some sexy times coming her way!”

“Can we maybe not use embarrassing nicknames while discussing my sex life?” exclaimed a scandalized Rey. 

Poe just smirked triumphantly while Rose snickered nearby.

—

Rey rushed off immediately after the conclusion of the burning ritual. It was late, the earliest traces of dawn lighting up the first day of the New Year, and Rey was tired. That might have been enough to explain her haste, but Rey also had another motivation: avoiding Luke’s further scrutiny. 

Rey knew her respite would be short. After all, she had an apprentice lesson with Luke in a few days, and she was sure he would confront her then about whatever had him so unsettled.

For now, though, Rey craved solitude. Between potentially exposing herself to Kylo, manifesting him in the flames, and trying to process the outcome of the Burning Ritual, Rey had a lot to think about before she would feel ready to face Luke’s searching gaze.

As she approached the front door of her apartment, she automatically reached into her bag for her keys. It took a moment for her to remember that they were still missing. Her earlier exchange with Kylo played in her mind as she huffed out a defeated breath. 

Rey glanced over at his apartment door. It was still. She carefully scanned every inch of the tiny landing, before moving on to the stairs. (She would never again forget to check the stairs.) She was entirely alone.

Secure that she would definitely not be interrupted, Rey placed her hand on the doorknob and in a barely audible whisper recited the magic words. She pulled the door open and rushed through as soon as she heard the lock disengage. 

When she was securely inside, with the lock turned and the chain drawn, Rey fell back against the front door and closed her eyes. She was truly exhausted. 

After a moment or two of restorative silence, Rey opened her eyes. Something silver glinted at her from the corner of her eyes. She turned slightly to see her keys lying on the coffee table in plain view. 

Rey signed loudly and headed off to bed.

—


	2. Chapter 2

_Knock, knock._

Rey was startled awake by someone knocking on her front door. “Just a minute!” she called groggily, as she fought for consciousness. But with consciousness, came the memory of yesterday. Specifically, the memory of her encounter with Kylo and the now critical necessity that she confront him about what exactly he had seen. 

She groaned and shut her eyes. Maybe if she focused all of her magical energy, she could turn back time and buy herself a few more hours. Or maybe she could turn the clock back even further and never have done that stupid, lazy incantation in the first place.

_Knock, knock, knock._

“I’m coming!” she shouted again impatiently, before getting up and wrapping a flowy, black robe over her ratty pjs. She thought maybe the robe’s floral embroidery made it more presentable for receiving company. 

She piled her hair into a messy bun on top of her head as she walked across her modest apartment. When she reached the door, she took a quick peek into her entryway mirror and swiped at her messy raccoon eyes (she had been too exhausted to wash off her mascara last night). Deeming herself minimally presentable, Rey threw open the front door.

Kylo Ren was standing on the other side.

“Oh!” she cried, no longer harboring any illusions about the respectability of her sleepwear. She clutched the robe tighter, suddenly very aware of what the unheated air was doing to her braless nipples. “Good morning!” she managed to say. 

“Um, good afternoon,” Kylo replied. “I didn’t wake you, did I?” His eyes were full of concern.

“What? No! Of course not! Okay… well, yes. You did. But! I usually get up at a very socially acceptable hour. It’s just… well, yesterday was New Year’s Eve and…” she turned to glance at the antique analog clock in her kitchen. Sure enough, it was well after noon. “I was up really late and…”

“Actually, yesterday is what I wanted to talk to you about,” he said, saving her from what probably would have been several more seconds of embarrassing rambling.

Rey’s mouth went very dry. So, this was happening. Right now. Without any preparation. “Oh… er, you better come in, then,” she said, motioning for him to enter. Kylo complied, but looked a bit surprised by the invitation. 

She collapsed into her favorite overstuffed armchair. Kylo perched across from her, on the very edge of the couch she had saved from a random curb. 

Rey took a deep breath and began. “I was actually just about to come find you to talk about yesterday. I wasn’t sure if you actually saw anything.”

“Oh, I did. On the stairs.”

Well, there it was: confirmation. He had seen her use magic to lock her front door. 

Rey frantically thought through her options. She could use a charm to muddle his memory of the event. Or she could cast a spell to bind his tongue. Maybe the threat of cursing him would be enough to keep him quiet? 

Of course, this was all assuming he hadn’t already publicly exposed her.

“Did you… um… have you told anyone about what you saw?”

He shot her an odd look. “No… why would I tell anyone?”

“It’s just… I just… historically, this sort of thing hasn’t gone well for people like me.”

“People like you?” The corner of his mouth quirked up. “You mean people who lose things?”

Rey balked, confusion diffusing over her delicate features. Ben looked back at her steadily and she found she couldn’t look away. That was happening to her a lot lately, getting caught in stares.

“I have it right here,” he finally said, breaking their standoff and reaching into his pocket to pull out… 

An amulet. _Her_ amulet, in fact. The one given to her by the High Witch Priestess Maz Kanata. The one that had ultimately convinced Luke Skywalker that she was worthy of being his apprentice.

“Where did you get that?” she squeaked, eyes fixed on the burnished metal Trinity knot in his palm.

“You dropped it on the stairs yesterday, when you rushed off so quickly. I tried to stop you, but I guess you didn’t hear me,” he explained. “Weren’t we…” He furrowed his brow. “...Didn’t we just talk about this?”

It took a moment for Rey to sort out what exactly was going on, but when she did, she felt the dread and anxiety that had been a constant presence since yesterday suddenly disappear. 

Thank the Goddess! Kylo hadn’t seen her do magic! He still had no idea she was a witch. He was here because she had dropped her amulet. That. Was. All. 

“Oh, yes. Of course that’s what we were talking about.” She reached out to take the amulet from his hand, but his fist closed over it, blocking her.

“Tell me about it,” he said, his voice suddenly serious and a bit commanding. “Where did you get it? What does it mean?”

“It’s just a trinket…” she said, unnerved by his tone. “I… found it at an estate sale… it doesn’t mean anything,” she lied. 

Kylo stared at her for a minute longer, as if he was searching for a sign of deception. But Rey had been keeping secrets her entire life and was well practiced at hiding things. She adopted her most guileless expression and met his gaze head on.

Eventually, his face softened and he loosened his grip, dropping the amulet into her open palm. 

“The pattern is just interesting,” he told her with a slight smile. “It’s a trefoil knot, the simplest nontrivial knot in knot theory. It has loads of compelling mathematical applications…” he trailed off, shaking his head and pinking slightly. “Anyway, I don’t want to bore you by talking about geometry. I should probably get going, anyway.”

Goddess, he was _such_ a nerd! And it might have been the most adorable thing Rey had ever seen. She was so charmed by the revelation that Kylo Ren was a massive nerd, that she hardly even remembered his weirdness over the amulet. He was probably just interested in the “trivial knot” or whatever he had called it, anyway.

Rey stood suddenly, her robe billowing open a bit and exposing the old chalk-splattered “fun run” tee she was wearing underneath. Kylo’s eyes drifted to the logo (“Takodana Color Run 2k15”) and his face turned bright red. Rey looked down and saw what had made him blush so hard; her nipples were hard and clearly visible through the thin fabric of the tee. 

Rey felt her face turn a matching shade of red. She pulled her robe back around her. “You don’t have to go,” she told him while fastening the tie. 

“That’s okay,” he said, his blush reduced only slightly, “I’m sure you probably want to change.” His eyes flitted back down to her chest for a second and he swallowed thickly.

“Can I at least get you some tea first?” she asked, all in a flutter.

“Oh, no thank you. I don’t really drink tea,” he told her, shifting in his seat.

“Some water? A banana? Leftover Chinese?”

Kylo giggled. He actually giggled. The sound made Rey feel warm. “You’re sweet, Rey.” He sounded like he meant it. “But I really do need to get going.”

“Oh.” She chewed her bottom lip, following closely as he got up and moved to the door. “Well, thank you for coming over and bringing back my amu—er, trinket.” 

“It was my pleasure, Rey,” he replied, his eyes taking on that now-familiar intensity.

Rey shivered, before turning to open the door. “Well, goodbye,” she told him softly.

“Goodbye,” he said, lingering a moment longer before finally stepping out onto the landing. 

With one last little wave, he walked the short distance to his own front door and disappeared behind it.

As Rey closed the door, she couldn’t keep the flustered smile off her face.

—

The next morning, Rey woke up a few hours earlier than usual so she could visit her and Finn’s greenhouse before heading into their flower shop. 

When she walked out onto the landing, an hour or two before her usual time, Kylo was locking his front door, looking sexy as hell in his wired frames and black peacoat. 

They smiled at each other (a bit awkwardly) and exchanged inane pleasantries. It only lasted a moment or two before Kylo’s phone rang and he had to rush off to work.

Despite the brevity and the innocuous nature of the exchange, however, Rey couldn’t stop thinking about how he looked in his peacoat, or the way he said hello, for the rest of the day.

So obvious was her distraction, that midway through the morning Finn commented, “Rey, what’s going on with you today? I’ve been asking you about the belladonna for the last five minutes. Rose was hoping she could get some for a potion she wants to brew.”

Rey startled. She hadn’t noticed Finn come into the room. She thought he was still in the back, checking the inventory. “Oh, the belladonna? Yeah, I checked it this morning. It should be ready to harvest after the next full moon.”

“Thanks, Peanut! I’ll let her know. What about the hybrid tea roses? Now that the holidays are over, we’ll probably start getting Valentine’s Day orders soon.”

“They looked good too. We should have plenty of stock for Valentine’s. Speaking of roses…” Rey said, pointing to the front door.

Finn looked up at the sound of the door chime to see Rose entering the shop. “What are you doing here?” he cried with happy surprise, coming around from behind the counter to greet his girlfriend. 

“You forgot your lunch. Plus, I wanted to see if Rey had any updates on Mr. Tall, Dark, and Broody.”

“Tall, dark, and broody?” Finn repeated, turning on Rey.

“It’s nothing,” Rey told him definitively. “Rose has just convinced herself that I have a crush on my mortal neighbor. But she’s imagining things.”

“If I’m just imagining it, why are you so red?”

Rey glared at her. “Even if I did have a bit of crush—which I’m absolutely _not_ admitting—I’m not stupid enough to do anything about it. I know the rules.”

“Ah, yes. Luke’s rule. ‘Witch/mortal relations put the whole coven at risk because mortals can’t be trusted,’” Rose mocked. “You know, my sister is in a coven where a couple of the witches are _married_ to mortals. The coven just trusts the mortals to keep the secret. And if they don’t, the coven intervenes.”

“What do they do when they intervene?” asked Rey curiously.

Rose shrugged. “Paige says they haven’t had to yet. But if they did, I imagine they’d just cast a memory charm or bind the secret on the mortal’s tongue or something.”

“Yeah, that’s what I considered doing to Kylo,” thought Rey absently. Or, at least… she _thought_ she thought it… 

“Wait, WHAT?”

Rey winced. “I… it was before the burning ritual… I thought maybe Kylo had seen me do some magic. That’s why I was late…” Finn and Rose were looking at her like she’d just sprouted a pig nose right in front of them (a fate that, unfortunately, actually had befallen a former member of their coven). “But it was a false alarm!” she reassured them. “He’d only just found my amulet. I guess I dropped it on the stairs on my way out or something.”

“Your Skywalker legacy amulet?” Finn tried to clarify.

“...yes…”

“PEANUT!”

“Don’t worry! I told him it was just a trinket I found at an estate sale!”

“Sure, but _how did you misplace your Skywalker legacy amulet??_ The one given to you by _Maz Kanata_ because she said it called to you! The one that convinced _Luke Skywalker_ that he should break his nearly decade-long embargo on taking apprentices and teach you!”

“I got it back! Kylo brought it back!”

“Goddess, Rey,” said Rose. “This is worse than I thought! You’re so far gone for this guy that you’re misplacing the _Skywalker legacy amulet_!”

“I’ve got to agree,” added Finn. “You can be pretty absent minded sometimes—”

“Something the two of you have in common,” interjected Rose fiddling with the brown bag containing Finn’s lunch.

“—but this is another level!”

“That’s not all,” said Rey in a small voice. She considered how much she wanted to say. Might as well go with all of it… “Before the burning ritual, I was looking into the bonfire and… a face appeared to me. Kylo’s face. What do you think it means?”

Rose let out a long breath. “It could honestly mean a lot of things. After we build the blaze and make the first offering, the fire becomes a conduit, connecting us to the Goddess. She uses the flames as she wills them, sometimes using them to send messages. It’s usually just in the course of the ritual. The changing colors of the flames after we make out invocations, for example. But occasionally, I have heard of the Goddess making extra-ceremonial contact. 

“If the Goddess showed you Kylo’s face… she was trying to tell you something. Only you can interpret the vision, but I think it’s safe to say that Kylo has a bigger role to play in all this than just ‘forbidden mortal neighbor you’re thirsty for.’”

—


	3. Chapter 3

The rest of the week went by very slowly. 

Rey’s thoughts turned to Kylo often, but that was nothing new. For the past few months, she would randomly find herself thinking of him whenever she was particularly bored or horny. 

She was embarrassed to admit that a few times, and only when she was especially desperate to get to sleep, she would imagine familiar brown eyes and big hands while she touched herself. It made her feel like an absolute creep, but, she had to admit, it was also a very effective fantasy.

However, in light of her recent conversation with Finn and Rose, Rey’s thoughts of Kylo were much less explicit and more much reflective and ruminative of late. She replayed and dissected every interaction she had ever had with him, and tried hard to determine exactly what the Goddess intended for the two of them.

But Rey was beginning to worry that the Goddess’s message would remain a mystery.

The morning before her private lesson with Luke, Rey had been so worked up about all of it, that she had called Luke to cancel, feigning illness. She felt sure that whatever Luke had to confront her about, it would involve Kylo. And she didn’t want to talk about Kylo unless she had some goddessly justification for her increasing attachment to the mortal.

After a week of thinking and obsessing and Luke dodging, Rey found herself back on her apartment’s fourth floor landing, staring at Kylo’s closed front door. She couldn’t stay away any longer. It was time to indulge the Goddess, just a bit. She took a deep breath, readjusting the bundle in her arms, and knocked. 

After just a moment or two of waiting, Kylo opened the door. Judging from his rolled up sleeves, the apron, and the oven mitt, Rey was pretty sure she had interrupted his dinner-making.

“Sorry to bother you,” she began. “We just had some extra flowers at work today and I thought that maybe you would like them.” She held out the bouquet that she had meticulously arranged that afternoon, using only the freshest flowers.

“You brought me flowers?” he asked, his eyes wide with shock. 

“Well… yes. But it’s really not that weird. It’s not like I went out and bought you flowers or anything… I’m a florist. They were extra stock.” 

That wasn’t totally true. Rey had spent a good hour that afternoon looking through all their flowers and greenery, deciding exactly what she wanted to put into Kylo’s bouquet. She had eventually decided on a fern-heavy arrangement. A somewhat cheeky choice since ferns represented magic, fascination, and a secret bond of love. Of course, Rey’s inclusion of the greenery had nothing to do with that last part… 

“You _arranged_ me flowers?” Kylo asked, his eyes opening even wider. 

“Well… yeah.”

Kylo carefully took the arrangement from Rey, cradling it close to his chest before heading toward his kitchen. 

Rey took the opportunity to glance around his apartment. It was the exact same layout as hers, but Kylo’s seemed bigger and less lived in. It probably had something to do with the sparse, clinical decoration.

“I don’t think I have a vase,” he said, drawing her attention back to the kitchen. He was shuffling through an overhead cabinet, his back to Rey. “But let me see what else I have… aha! This might work,” he said triumphantly. 

When Kylo turned back to face her, he was carrying a large souvenir beer stein. Rey laughed. “Yes, that should work,” she told him. “In fact, you might have just given me an idea for the next floral trend.” 

He smiled as he tore back the cellophane and butcher paper covering his bouquet. “You know, you don’t have to stand in the doorway forever. Please, come in.”

“I don’t want to interrupt your dinner…”

“No, please. In fact…” he said thoughtfully, “do you have any plans for dinner tonight? I accidentally made way too much spaghetti for just me to eat.”

“Oh, no. I couldn’t impose—”

“It’s no imposition, Rey, really. You’d be doing me a favor. I _hate_ leftovers, but I also hate wasting food.”

“Really, I couldn’t.” 

“Please,” he said, his voice so sincere and pleading that Rey couldn’t possibly refuse him. 

“Well… okay. But please, at least let me take over the flower arranging.”

Kylo looked down at the flowers and greenery that he had just unceremoniously plopped into the beer stein. “Probably for the best,” he shrugged. “I have to put the garlic bread under the broiler, anyway.”

While Kylo finished dinner and Rey trimmed and rearranged the bouquet, they chatted freely.

“So, you’re a physicist? I guess that explains the math.”

“Oh, well, I don’t actually study knot theory at my job. Mathematicians do that. I just have an extracurricular interest in a couple of mathematical fields of study.”

“Of course,” Rey teased. “Who doesn’t pick up the occasional math-related academic journal?”

Ben laughed softly.

“So how did you get into physics?” she asked.

“Growing up, my mom and my uncle had some… strange ideas about how the world worked. They didn’t really trust modern technology or Western medicine.”

Rey paused. Honestly, it didn’t sound that different from the way she was living. A lot of modern technology was pretty redundant when you could just use magic to make your life easier. And Western medicine was kind of obsolete in the face of healing potions and spells. “Were they religious or something?” she asked curiously.

“In a way… more like they were hippies, but even that’s not quite the right label. Anyway, I was always really interested in science as a kid. But my mom and uncle wanted me to pursue more… philosophical areas of study. They would track the phases of the moon for… hippy-ish reasons. Meanwhile, I would be fascinated that morta— er, people used math and science to actually _go_ to the moon.”

Not for the first time, Rey found herself utterly endeared by his nerdy enthusiasm. So deep was her infatuation, that she didn’t even register his slip of the tongue. “What about now? Have they come around to having a physicist in the family?”

Ben’s face hardened. “Actually, when they found out I was leaving home to go to college and get a physics degree, we fought. I guess they’d both been too busy with the cov—commune to really notice my years-long obsession with math and science. They somehow still expected me to follow in their footsteps and study… philosophy. We haven’t really spoken since.”

“And your dad?”

“As little attention as I got from my mom and uncle, I got even less from my dad. He was gone pretty much all the time when I was a kid. I’m not sure he noticed when I left.”

“That’s… really shitty, Kylo. I’m sorry.”

And despite Rey’s own far-from-ideal upbringing, she meant it. 

Kylo looked back at her with the softest eyes she had ever seen. She wanted him to look at her like that forever…

He cleared his throat and ran a hand through his waves, breaking the spell between them. “Well, it is what it is. What about you? Tell me about your family.”

Rey frowned. Her parents, who she could only guess had been magically inclined, had abandoned her when she was very young and doomed her to a childhood spent in the mortal foster care system. That meant that for the first eighteen years of her life, she had lived a life as devoid of magic as Kylo’s.

Well… almost. For all Rey’s ignorance of her abilities, they still occasionally manifested. Always at the worst possible moments. Usually when she was angry or afraid.

—

The first time Rey made an object move, an older boy had been trying to steal the candy bar Rey’s case worker had given her for her sixth birthday.

It was the first time she could remember feeling that level of anger. She was angry at the boy for being such a bully, angry at Unkar Plutt, the house dad, for not protecting her, and angry at her parents for leaving her behind and putting her in that situation in the first place. 

While the older boy taunted and Rey seethed, she imagined all the things she would like to do to him. As she was imagining pouring a large pot of macaroni and cheese over his head (he would look so stupid dripping from head to toe in reconstituted powdered cheese sauce), the dinner pot flew from its spot on the stove, across the room and deposited its contents all over the boy’s head.

Except… the pot hadn’t really done it at all. Rey had. She knew it, and somehow the older boy knew it too.

“Freak!” he spat out, just before letting go of her Dairy Milk bar and running away.

After that, all the other kids in the group home had kept their distance, which had been perfectly fine with little Rey. It was safer that way (if a little lonely).

—

It wasn’t until thirteen years later, when she had aged out of the foster system, that Rey discovered a whole community of people with similar abilities.

Rey had been out for a jog, part of her normal nightly routine, when she felt herself inexplicably pulled to a decrepit looking building with a small crowd outside. Rey looked around and realized she was off her usual path. How long had she been jogging, anyway?

But despite the numerous red flags the situation presented, Rey had been unable to resist the pull.

As she approached the building, a door opened and the crowd moved inside. Rey followed them, somehow unquestioned. 

The building seemed to be some kind of a hidden speakeasy. A makeshift bar took up the back wall of the open space. Mismatched tables and chairs were scattered on one side, a dance floor on the other. 

Following her instincts, Rey approached the bar. A beautiful, dark-skinned woman with thick glasses stood behind the counter, brewing drinks. Rey couldn’t place the woman’s age: she might have been twenty-five or she might have been fifty. There was something ageless about her features.

Rey settled herself on a stool, waiting for her turn to speak to the woman. Before her chance came, however, a young man on the stool next to her struck up a conversation. 

“I don’t think we’ve met yet. My name is Finn.” He held out his hand to her, a warm, open smile on his face. Rey took his hand warily.

“Rey,” she told him. Then after a moment of hesitation, “It’s my first time here.”

“Ah, new to the area? You’ll like it. The community is really strong, thanks to Maz.” Finn pointed to the woman behind the bar.

“Maz?” Rey asked.

“She owns this place. You know, in addition to being High Priestess,” he laughed. “You must have heard of her? Maz Kanata?”

“High Priestess?” Rey queried, while Finn said something about covens and craft. She wasn’t really listening, too focused on the woman, Maz Kanata, and whatever had led Rey to her. 

Suddenly, Rey watched as Maz disappeared through a previously unseen door.

Rey abruptly stood, desperate to follow. “I have to go,” she told the friendly Finn.

Half in a daze, Rey followed Maz, surprised and relieved when no one intervened to halt her pursuit. Eventually, she found herself in a long corridor, with the High Priestess nowhere to be seen, that familiar feeling from earlier pulling her down the corridor to another door at the end.

Rey pushed the door open and found herself in some sort of small storage room. Shelves lined the walls, packed to overflowing with strange objects and trinkets. Rey felt herself drawn to a particular wooden box sitting on a center shelf in the back of the room. 

She stepped slowly towards the box, and reached out to lift the lid. An old, silver amulet sat inside. The amulet was a three-pointed knot, with a second, smaller knot nestled inside. 

Rey was filled with an overwhelming urge to touch the antique ornament. As soon as her fingers made contact with cold silver, however, Rey felt a surge of energy throw her back and knock her off her feet.

As she recovered from the shock, Rey saw Maz Kanata standing over her.

“What was that?” Rey asked her.

“The amulet was Luke Skywalker’s, and his father’s before him. And now it calls to you,” Maz told her. “The double triquetra represents the balance of the Goddess and the universe. Close your eyes, child, you already know the truth. Feel it.”

“I… are you talking about magic? It’s magic? I’m… magic?”

“You’re a witch, child. Now come.” Maz grabbed the amulet without any incident. “Take it,” she said, holding it out to Rey. “And follow me.”

Rey stood and carefully took the amulet from the High Witch Priestess/speakeasy proprietress. Nothing happened except a low hum of energy emanating in Rey’s hand.

Maz was already halfway down the hallway, disappearing into an unassuming office, and Rey followed quickly.

By the time Rey left Maz’s speakeasy a few hours later, Maz had given her four gifts: 1) knowledge of the magical community and her membership within it. 2) The Skywalker legacy amulet. 3) Directions to find someone named Luke Skywalker and ask him to train her in witchcraft. And 4) a friend in Finn Trooper, who bought Rey a drink after Maz deposited the newly awakened and overwhelmed witch back at the bar. 

Of all the things Rey had gained that night, Finn might have been the most important. The simple act of offering her a drink and a sympathetic smile at her most vulnerable moment, had bonded Rey to Finn forever. 

The accelerated pace at which they deepened their connection, however, could only be attributed to the Goddess. It was just a few weeks later that Rey realized she wasn’t without a family; Finn was her family. And later Rose. And Poe. And the rest of her found coven, with Luke Skywalker at the head of it.

—

Of course, Rey didn’t tell Kylo any of this. Instead she said, “Oh, I don’t really have a family in the traditional sense. I was a foster kid, so... more of a found family. Is that the timer?”

Kylo shifted his concentration from Rey to the beeping sound that was filling the kitchen. He busied himself with transferring the food and setting his small table.

Rey smiled as she noticed Kylo setting the places catty-corner to one another. Rey knew from a summer spent waitressing, that it was a rather intimate setup. Only the most nauseating couples insisted on sitting side-by-side.

Between the flowers and the seating, this dinner was beginning to feel more and more like a date. And despite Rey’s initial reluctance to open up, during dinner she found herself more than willing to share small details of her life. She even told Kylo about Finn (glossing over all the witchy details, of course).

“He’s honestly just the best person I know, you know? Just so loyal and principled,” Rey told Kylo, her voice getting thick with emotion.

Out of the corner of her eye she caught Kylo’s jaw clench. She looked up from her food and Kylo turned away from her quickly, shifting back in his seat and folding his arms.

“Hm,” he hummed with polite disinterest.

Rey wasn’t sure what had just happened to provoke this new reaction. A minute earlier he had seemed really engaged in their conversation, but an unwelcome awkwardness had settled over them. She fumbled to get them back on track. “And I’m just so happy that he’s found someone,” she offered, a bit desperate to recapture their earlier intimacy.

Kylo shifted his gaze back to her. “Oh?” he asked, unfolding his arms.

“Um, yeah. Rose. They’ve been together for a year now.”

While she spoke, Kylo had scooted his chair closer to Rey’s. He was leaning toward her, the storminess receding from his face, his posture open. “You’re a really good friend, Rey,” he told her with genuine warmth in his voice.

“Thank you,” she replied, blushing furiously.

“So tell me more about Rose,” he said brightly, the brief awkwardness forgotten.

Kylo seemed genuinely interested in everything Rey had to say that evening. And, of course, everything Kylo said was fascinating.

Well, it was fascinating when Kylo said it, at least. Rey was convinced the information wouldn’t have been even half as interesting if any other physicist had tried delivering it. 

When she left his apartment shortly after they finished the dishes (she washed, he dried and put them away), Rey thought maybe he looked disappointed that she was taking her leave. 

(Or maybe she was just projecting, and he was actually relieved that his eccentric neighbor, who had brought him flowers like some sort of stalker, practically invited herself into his home, and then overstayed her welcome, was finally leaving.) 

—

A day later, she hadn’t really had a chance to dissect every aspect of her evening with Kylo in order to find any insights; because, after fully indulging her Kylo obsession for the last several days (and weeks… and months…), Rey was now trying very hard to _not_ think of him. She had a lesson with Luke that afternoon and she, quite simply, couldn’t afford the distraction.

After cancelling on him last week, there was no way Rey could ditch Luke again. She hoped the delay meant Luke had forgotten about whatever had been bothering him at the burning ritual. Maybe they would just talk magic. Maybe Kylo wouldn’t even come up, at all. Maybe it wouldn’t matter that Rey was no closer to deciphering the Goddess’s intentions. 

Over the past year or two, Rey’s lessons with Luke had been critical in helping her control and expand her newly awakened magical abilities. Rey didn’t want her… interest in Kylo to jeopardize her apprenticeship with Luke.

Rey thought back on her early experience with the grumpy old witch.

Luckily, and with ample help from her new friend Finn, it had only taken Rey a few months of sleuthing to track down Luke. 

At first, and despite her presenting him with his legacy amulet, he had refused to speak to her. But Rey hadn’t given up. 

When Luke eventually did speak to her, it was only to tell her that he no longer took apprentices. 

But Rey had been instructed by the High Witch Priestess, Maz Kanata herself to secure Luke’s instruction and, by the Goddess, she would secure it!

Eventually, probably sensing the deep well of both her persistence and potential, Luke relented and agreed to teach her a few basic lessons. 

Numerous lessons had passed since then, and Luke was still teaching her. He had also reassumed his rightful position as a coven leader.

Remembering those early confrontations, Rey steeled herself for what would inevitably be the next one. She knocked on the door of his large warehouse space. 

“Come in!” he yelled through the heavy front door. Rey took a steadying breath and pushed it open. 

The air inside Luke’s space was thick with smoke and the smell of burning sage. Rey waved away the vapor enough to take in the usual trimmings. A small cauldron bubbled softly on the stove. Various bundles of organic material hung from fishing line strung across the room. A large magic circle, scattered with half-burned candles dripping with wax, was chalked onto the hardwood floor. And in the middle of it all was Luke, sitting cross-legged on a large ornamental floor cushion.

“Sit down, Rey,” Luke intoned, motioning to the cushion across from him. Rey approached and lowered herself down carefully.

“I think you mentioned we’d be working on divination to—“

“I wanted to talk to you, Rey. You know, I think you are a very talented witch. But the witchcraft we are doing requires a level of focus and dedication that I am beginning to fear you don’t or, more likely, won’t give to our craft.” 

Rey shifted uncomfortably, all delusions that Luke had moved on from the strangeness during the burning ritual dashed. “What do you mean, Master Luke?”

“You’ve seemed distracted, Rey. You were late to the ritual on New Year’s Eve, and then, during it, you seemed preoccupied. At one point, I caught you staring into the flames, your focus far from our gathering.”

Rey opened her mouth to respond, but Luke stilled her with a raised hand.

“I need you to reassure me that you’re still committed to your training. I won’t accept anything less than your full commitment to this lifestyle and this coven. Not after what happened with my last apprentice...”

Rey looked up in surprise. “What _did_ happen with your last apprentice, Master Luke? You’ve never mentioned them before,” she prodded softly.

Luke hesitated, his gaze hardening. “I… that’s not… you don’t need to… Ben,” he finally relented. For a moment, Rey wasn’t sure he would continue. 

“My last apprentice was my nephew, Ben. He had _so_ much natural magical ability. More natural ability that I had ever seen in anyone… until you showed up at my door. 

“My sister and I, we raised him to take over the coven and carry on our legacy. But when he came of age… he turned his back on us and our lifestyle. We hadn’t realized but… he had been seduced away by mortals.”

Rey gasped. “He fell in love with a mortal? Is that why you have that rule about no mortal/witch relations?”

“Er… no. Not quite. He fell in love with mortal nonsense. Mortal teachings,” Luke explained. “But the ban on witch/mortal relations is not specific to my coven, Rey. It exists throughout the magical community.”

“That’s not true, Master Luke! Rose says that other covens aren’t as strict about it. Her sister is in a coven where it’s not unusual for witches to _marry_ mortals.”

“And what, may I ask, prompted this topic of conversation between you and Ms. Tico?”

“I… Rose thinks… well, it’s not true, of course, but Rose got the idea in her head that maybe I had a crush on my... mortal neighbor…” 

Luke looked at her very sternly. “I have these rules, Rey, because I have seen firsthand the devastating effect that living in two worlds can have on young witches! My nephew tried to live in both worlds and when he was inevitably forced to choose, he chose the mortal realm and broke his mother’s heart.”

“Master Luke, I understand where you’re coming from, it’s just… the night of the burning ritual, I looked into the fire and the Goddess sent me the image of Ky—my mortal neighbor’s face. I can’t shake the feeling that our… friendship... is the will of the Goddess!”

“What did you just say?” Luke hissed.

“I can’t shake the feeling that I’m meant to have some kind of relationship with Ky—“

“What did you say about the fire, Rey?” Luke asked through his teeth.

Rey tried again, going back further in her explanation. “Before last week's ritual began, I was looking into the violet flames and the mortal’s face appeared to me,” she told him. “Rose says that sometimes the Goddess communicates directly through the flames and that I should try and figure out what the Goddess was trying to say to me.”

“Yes, very rarely. The Goddess is a busy deity. When she takes the time to communicate with us directly, especially outside of our prescribed rituals, we should heed her… I need to know, Rey, are you sure it was the Goddess that manifested the image, and not your own mind?”

“It actually happened, Master Luke. I wasn’t imagining it. I’m certain,” she told him solemnly.

Luke sighed dramatically. “Then for today’s lesson, we’ll cover how to make a special sleeping draught.” Luke stood, gathering supplies from a curio cabinet against one wall. “You’ll take it tonight and it should increase your susceptibility to visions. We’ll see if the Goddess speaks to you again and offers any further insight into why she’s shown you some… mortal.” His face scrunched up, as if just saying the word was distasteful to him. “Let’s get started.”

Rey and Luke spent the next few hours carefully brewing her special draught. When Luke finally poured the complicated concoction into a small vial, he told Rey they were finished and she was free to go.

She took the vial from her Master and readied herself to go home. As she pulled on her coat, however, Rey couldn’t stop herself from asking, “Master Luke, whatever happened with your old apprentice, your nephew?”

“I have no idea. We haven’t spoken since he turned his back on his coven and his family,” Luke told her with finality.

“What about your sister? Where is she?”

“I’m not sure she’s ever forgiven me for not saving her son. When Ben left, our coven fell apart. The members scattered, joining other covens or deciding to study independently. A few even followed Ben into the mortal world, disavowing magic entirely. I left to escape it all, and remained in exile until some upstart young witch started harassing me.” He gave Rey a significant glare. “But Leia, my sister, she’s still healing from the loss of her son.”

“What if your nephew is… do you even know if he’s okay?”

“He’s alive,” Luke told her confidently. “Trust me, Rey. If my nephew had left this life, I would have felt it. He may not be actively using his abilities, but I can still feel his presence in the universe. I could probably even hunt him down if I really wanted to. I don’t think he’s very far away.”

Rey placed her hand on Luke’s door before turning back one last time. She said, with trepidation, “I know it’s none of my business, Master Luke, but I feel like I need to say: I think it’s very sad that you have family, your actual flesh and blood, out in the world—maybe they’re hurting, maybe they’re struggling, maybe they’re missing you—and you aren’t reaching out to them. It doesn’t matter what’s happened in the past. No one is ever truly gone.”

And with that, Rey opened the door and walked away.

—


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **CHAPTER WARNING**: Please note that there is a brief mention/image of future children in this chapter.

Rey was both relieved and disappointed to not run into Kylo as she returned home. Relieved because she had a lot to think about already, without adding a new Kylo interaction to the list. Disappointed because, for all Rey’s frequent denials that she had feelings for the mortal, she felt like all the time spent between interactions was just filler for when she finally saw him again.

Per Luke’s instructions, Rey made the Goddess a small offering and took the sleeping draught just before climbing into her bed for the night. 

She wasn’t much of a dreamer, normally, but the draught changed that. The Goddess had heard Rey’s pleas and delivered visions in spades. Unfortunately, so numerous were the visions that Rey couldn’t catch anything more that a flash before it moved onto the next. 

_In one scene, she saw Luke… his face was hidden from her… hunched over in defeat, while everything seemed to crumble around him…_

_In another, Rey saw Kylo, looking a few years younger than his present self… he was burning with anger as he loped toward her ominously…_

_She saw a scene of herself as a child… screaming and crying as a car drove away... the fat paw of Unkar Plutt holding her arm tightly..._

Rey’s last vision, though, was solid and clear. She couldn’t see every detail, but she could see the general shape of the scene. 

_Rey was sitting somewhere, Kylo beside her, an odd shape wriggling in his arms. As Rey continued staring, the “thing” in Kylo’s arms seemed to come into focus. It was a child. A toddler, with hazel eyes and messy brown-almost-black waves..._

_Kylo passed the child to Rey and she took… him? her?... in a daze. As the child began to cry in earnest, Rey watched as Kylo lifted his hand and... summoned a toy to him from across the room._

Rey woke up sweaty and panting, the last vision still fresh in her mind.

Was the Goddess showing Rey her future? Was that _her_ child? _With Kylo?_

But in the vision, Kylo had used magic to summon a toy from across the room.

Rey’s heart sank as she realized the vision couldn’t have been a prophecy. Kylo was a mortal, and magic was something you were either born with or not. No one _acquired_ magic later in life. 

Even Rey, who had been raised as a mortal and only truly discovered her powers at nineteen, couldn’t fathom someone going almost thirty years without realizing, or at least suspecting, that they had a gift.

No, Kylo was a mortal. She was sure of it.

But then, if it wasn’t the future, what did it mean? And what was the Goddess trying to tell her?

Rey sat in bed for hours, staring into the void and replaying the visions in her mind, over and over again.

Curse the Goddess! Was she toying with Rey? Punishing her from some slight Rey had committed against her? Was she offering Rey piece after piece, clue after clue, of… something, with no intention to ever let Rey see the whole image?

Rey was finally knocked out of her trancelike state by a high pitched ringing sound. It was her alarm; she needed to get to work.

—

Rey was totally useless at work. After her second time drifting off while she was supposed to be helping a customer, Finn banished her to the backroom for the rest of the day. 

She tried to be productive: checking the inventory, and taking note of anything they would need to restock soon. But she primarily spent the time obsessing over Kylo.

The Goddess’s visions had done nothing to clarify his role in her life, or hers in his. If anything, it had just taunted her, dangling a future in front of her that she was desperate to have, but never could.

At lunch, Rose stopped by to check on Rey.

“Finn texted me. He said you seemed… off today.”

Rey looked up from where she was staring blankly into space. “Oh,” was all she could manage. 

“Are you okay, Rey? Do you want to talk about it?”

“Um. No?”

Rose gave her a piteous smile. “Okay. Should I talk about something else? Distract you?”

“Yes, please. What are you planning to do with the belladonna? Finn said you had a potion you wanted to try?”

“Oh, yes! My Auntie sent me the recipe for a healing potion that I’m eager to cook up. She says it’s transcendent, even by our standards. Fixed my little cousin’s cold right away!”

“Be careful with belladonna, Rose,” Rey warned. “It’s nasty stuff, most often used in poisons and hexes.”

“I know, I know. Don’t worry! The recipe calls for a single drop of dew squeezed from a flower, harvested during the full moon. I’m actually still trying to figure out what the last ingredient is, though. Maybe you can help me.” Rose pulled an aged and well-creased sheet of parchment out of her oversized bag. “It’s something called doxylamine succinate. Have you heard of it?”

Rey pondered for a moment before pulling out her iPhone. “Doxylamine succinate?” she repeated, while Rose eyed her device sceptically.

Rose was a witch, raised by witches, surrounded by other witches. She had very little faith in (and, frankly, understanding of) the miracles of mortal technology.

“It sounds vaguely familiar. Maybe it’s something in the Asteraceae family?” Rey postulated, ignoring Rose’s side-eye as she tapped away. “Just give me a moment and we’ll know for sure.”

As she watched the Google results load, Rey snorted loudly. “Of course,” she said between laughs, “that’s why it sounded familiar.”

“What is it?” Rose asked curiously.

“Your miraculous potion is NyQuil.”

“NyQuil?”

“It’s a mortal cold medication. You can get it at any pharmacy.”

Rose looked confused.

“The mortal apothecary,” Rey clarified. “Do yourself a favor, Rose, skip the belladonna and just go for the mortal stuff.”

“But—I mean—that ridiculous little box you’re holding must be wrong!”

“It’s not,” Rey told her.

“It must be!”

“Unkar, my mortal guardian, used to dose us with this stuff all the time, Rose. It knocks kids right out. The perfect remedy for a lazy caretaker. But your aunt is right. It totally works.”

Rose sighed. “Well, I guess not everything they make is terrible. Did I distract you, at least?”

Rey smiled kindly at her friend. It wasn’t her fault that this whole conversation had led Rey right to thinking of Kylo, his hippy mother and uncle, and their aversion to Western medicine.

“Don’t tell Master Luke about this,” Rey teased, attempting to focus her thoughts on someone _other_ than Kylo or his family.

“Oh, Luke,” Rose began with a bit of venom. “I might be just a tad bit wary of this mortal stuff—” Rey rolled her eyes, “—but Luke is downright distrustful! He thinks every mortal is the enemy! I, for one, think some aspects of mortality are… fine. Good, even. Especially this NyQuil and a, uh, certain tall, dark, and broody element.”

Rey laughed and felt her heart swell with love for friend. She wrapped her arms around Rose and whispered in a cracked, exhausted voice, “Thank you for trying to distract me.”

—

When they finally closed up shop for the day, Rey was relieved. Finn asked if she wanted to come over to his and Rose’s apartment for dinner, but Rey told him she just wanted to go home and get a normal night’s sleep. He understood.

When Rey finally reached the fourth floor landing, her eyes immediately strayed to Kylo’s door (like always). She was startled to find a figure standing in front of his door. A figure much too short to be Kylo.

Suddenly, it occurred to Rey that in the six months Kylo and her had been neighbors, she’d never seen him have any visitors. She studied the man visiting him now. He was just an inch or two taller than Rey, his graying blonde hair was a bit shaggy around his ears, and his brown overcoat had seen better days.

The longer Rey started at the stranger’s back, the more convinced she was that there was something familiar about him. 

“Master Luke?” she asked hesitantly.

Luke turned at the sound of her voice, his eyes widening in shock. “Rey?” he said.

“My apartment’s this one. Did we have an appointment?” she asked, pointing at her door. Her mind was too fatigued to process his presence on her landing. “I was going to call you tonight and tell you about my visions, but…”

Before she could finish her explanation, Kylo’s door opened abruptly and Luke turned.

“Uncle Luke?” Kylo exclaimed in shock, from his position filling up his doorframe.

“Ben,” returned Luke, his eyes wide, but not surprised.

“Ben?” repeated Rey. “Who’s Ben? Master Luke, how do you know my neighbor Kylo?”

“Master Luke?”

“Your neighbor, Kylo? Rey, is this the neighbor you were telling me about?” Luke asked urgently. 

“...yes.”

“Master Luke?” Kylo said again. “What’s going on, Uncle Luke? What are you doing here? And how do you know Rey? Why is she calling you ‘master’?” Over the course of his questions, Kylo’s voice had evolved from confused to accusing. 

Luke ran a hand through his hair, a gesture Rey had seen Kylo perform many times. Suddenly, it occurred to Rey that it wasn’t the only thing the two men had in common. Rey realized that all those days ago at the burning ritual, she had recognized Kylo’s intense stare in Luke’s.

“We better sit down,” Luke told the two of them, calmly. “All three of us.” He gestured for Kylo to step aside.

“I haven’t invited you in,” Kylo told him angrily. “You can’t just show up on my stoop after nearly a decade, and expect me to invite you in like everything is fine between us! And, anyway, how did you find me?” He turned to Rey, an expression of horror taking over his face. “Wait, is Rey your spy? Did you plant her here so she could keep tabs on me? Is that why she has my amulet?

“ _Your_ amulet?” Rey squeaked.

“Benjamin Solo, if you don’t invite Rey and me inside so I can explain everything, so help me Goddess, I will force my way in.”

“I’m bigger than you,” Kylo (Ben?) told Luke petulantly.

“And, whatever your natural abilities once were, I have three times as much magical training. Trust me, in a contest of power, I’ll win.”

 _Natural magical abilities_ , thought Rey. Understanding was slowly dawning on her. _Of course, Kylo was Luke’s wayward apprentice/nephew._

Rey watched as Kylo argued with himself before finally stepping aside and letting Luke by. “Rey,” Luke called to her. She followed in a daze.

Once inside Kylo’s apartment, Luke motioned for Kylo and Rey to sit on Kylo’s mid-century modern sofa and they both complied. Rey was unsurprised to find the furniture piece as hard and uncomfortable as his dining room chairs.

“Rey, I believe you know my nephew, Ben. You call him Kylo, apparently.” Luke either couldn’t help his disparaging tone or didn’t try to suppress it. “And Ben, I believe you know my apprentice, Rey.”

“This is the nephew you told me about?” Rey whispered, at the same time Kylo exclaimed, “Rey is your apprentice? Rey is a witch!?”

“One at a time, please,” said Luke with frustrating calmness. “Yes, Rey. This is the nephew I told you about. What you said during our discussion yesterday really struck a chord. You were right. I was letting bitterness and my own stubborn pride get in the way of what was important. After you left, I decided to reach out to Ben.” 

“And Ben,” he said, turning to his nephew, “I’m here because I want to make amends. I spent all night and day casting a tracking spell to pinpoint your location. You may have shunned magic these last few years, but magic has led me to you. I’m willing to do whatever I need to to repair things between us. I owe that to you. And to Leia”

Kylo flinched at the mention of his mother’s name, but otherwise just huffed in annoyed fury.

“Now, as to how I know Rey, she is my apprentice witch. She’s been under my tutelage for the past few years. But, as you can clearly see from that shell shocked expression she is failing miserably to hide, she had no idea you were my nephew until just now, today. So, no. She isn’t my spy. Whatever relationship the two of you have, it has nothing to do with me.”

Rey looked up at him quickly. “But… what do you mean it has nothing to do with you? You’ve been telling me this whole time witch/mortal relations are strictly forbidden. I thought… if you even found out about my feelings for… for Kylo, you would kick me out of the coven! Strip me of my abilities! Banish me to the hinterlands!”

“I thought you said it wasn’t true? Your crush on your mortal neighbor?” Luke teased. 

With a wave of panic, Rey suddenly remembered that Kylo was sitting right next to her. She turned to him, horrified that she had just outed her longtime crush to him. He was just staring at her, his mouth a perfect “o” of surprise. 

“It’s… I… it’s not!” she tried to say, stuttering over every word. 

Luke continued, “I just told you, you have a shit poker face, Rey. Of course I knew that you had feelings. I just didn’t know that the mortal neighbor you had feelings for was Ben.”

Rey opened her mouth to protest. She didn’t have a shit poker face! Rey was practiced at deception. If Luke could read her that easily it was because he was using magical perception! Before she could voice any of this, though, Luke continued speaking. 

“But, Ben, as my magically-born and raised nephew, he isn’t exactly mortal in the strictest sense of the word, now is he? You can’t exactly reveal our secret to someone who already knows it. And anyway, I think maybe I’ve been too strict with my ban on witch/mortal relations.”

Rey gaped at him. “I’m not promising to reverse it,” he added quickly. “I’m promising to consider it at our next coven meeting. I’m interested to hear about the other Ms. Tico’s coven. Any other questions before I take my leave?”

 _Only about a hundred_ , thought Rey. But before she could ask any of them, Kylo said, “What about the amulet? Why does she have our amulet?”

“By the will of the Goddess,” Luke answered simply. When Kylo looked unsatisfied, Luke continued, “That amulet was always meant for you, Ben, but after you left us, it was too painful to be constantly reminded of our broken legacy. I loaned the amulet to Maz Kanata, High Witch Priestess of Takodana, for safekeeping. _She_ gave it to Rey. Maz has assured me, and I have independently verified, that it is the will of the Goddess that it be with Rey.” With a mischievous glint in his eye, Luke continued, “But maybe someday, somehow, it will come back into the Skywalker fold.”

“I think that’s enough questions for now. We can discuss your remaining questions next time.” He shot Ben a heavy look. “Right now, I’m going to go ahead and return home. Ben, I’ll be in contact soon and we can start discussing what needs to happen for us to have a relationship again. And I can give you contact information for your mother. Rey, I suggest you talk to Ben a bit about your recent interactions with the Goddess.” 

And with that, Rey’s master took his hasty leave.

As the door shut behind him, Kylo turned to Rey. “What was he talking about, your recent dealings with the Goddess?”

Rey took a breath. “I just… it seems like maybe… the Goddess would like us to… happen.”

Kylo blinked at her. “Happen,” he repeated. 

“Yes.”

“And you’re basing this on…?”

“After I bumped into you on my way to the burning ritual, I was looking into the fire and I had an extra-ceremonial communication from the Goddess.” Rey took a deep breath before continuing. “Your face appeared to me in the bonfire flames.” Her face was burning with blush, now, and she wondered how much of this Kylo understood.

Most of it, apparently, because all he said in response was, “The burning ritual.” He looked as if he was finally connecting the pieces of a particularly challenging puzzle. “That’s where you were headed on New Year’s Eve.”

Rey nodded. “And that’s not all,” she hesitated to tell him. “The Goddess sent me another vision last night, and if I’m interpreting it correctly, it heavily suggested that maybe you and I were supposed to… be in each other’s lives.”

Kylo’s eyes were doing that intense Skywalker thing. “What was the vision?” he asked her.

“I’d… rather not say,” she said. She hadn’t realized that was the case until he asked, but now she felt sure that the vision would be too much for them. “I don’t want it to influence you.”

“The way it’s influenced you?” he asked, a touch of bitterness in his tone. “I’ll be honest, Rey, I ran away from all this magic stuff in large part because I didn’t like feeling like the Goddess was controlling everything.”

“I thought it was because of your love of physics,” Rey said seriously.

Kylo huffed out a laugh and Rey felt the corner of her mouth lift in response. “Yes, that too,” he replied. “But the reason I love physics is because it isn’t subject to the Goddess’s whim. Rey, I… I like you. Enough that it would probably really freak you out.” 

Rey’s breath hitched in surprise. _Kylo liked her? How much? For how long?_

He went on, “But I don’t want to pursue _anything_ with you if you’re only doing it because you think it’s the will of the Goddess. If we’re going to do anything, I want it to be because you chose it. Independent of any nosy deity’s will.”

“I like you too,” she rushed out in a single exhale. “I’ve like you for ages, Kylo… Ben… Kylo. Since way before the burning ritual. Months, actually.”

Kylo grinned at her. “Months?” he asked shyly.

Rey nodded. “If you only knew,” she groaned. “I tried to fight it at first, because of Luke’s rule, but I… couldn’t stop thinking about you.”

“And the Goddess has really only been involved since New Year’s?”

“Definitely. You can ask Rose. She knows everything. She’s been, um, teasing me about you for a while.”

“You’ve talked to Rose about me? For a while?”

“Yes,” Rey breathed out. 

“Okay, then.”

“Okay?”

“Okay. Let’s see what happens,” he told her, gesturing between them.

Rey had a full body reaction to his words. She hadn’t expected them to get to this point so quickly, so when he had turned to her to ask about her dealing with the Goddess, her entire body had tensed in anticipation of a long, drawn out affair. Now, hearing him propose that they pursue something between them, the long-held tension was releasing.

Rey felt light-headed. Giddy. Maybe it was the lack of sleep. Certainly, that had something to do with what came out of her mouth next. “Okay,” she agreed. “Is this the right time to mention that the Goddess promised me a lot of good sex this year? During the burning ritual?” 

Kylo spluttered before bursting into a genuine, hearty laugh. “Maybe let’s just start with a kiss,” he told her, just as practical as she would expect from a physicist. 

“Right now?” she needled. 

Instead of replying, Kylo leaned toward her and Rey closed her eyes in anticipation.

The first touch of his lips against hers sent a jolt of heat through her entire body, settling in her core. Rey wanted to devour him and be devoured in return, but Kylo seemed intent on keeping their kisses chaste. At least for the first little while. 

Eventually, Rey couldn’t restrain herself from reaching up to sink her fingers into his temptingly touchable waves. When she pulled his hair lightly, it seemed to awaken something primal inside him, and he gripped her waist firmly, pulling her closer to him.

Rey moaned softly as her body pressed flush against his. His chest felt even better than she remembered from that first time when she bumped into him.

As Rey let loose another pleased noise, Kylo pushed his tongue into her mouth, deepening the kiss. Rey responded in kind. 

As their lips and tongues met together again and again, Rey felt all of the mental tension and uncertainty and confusion she had been cycling through for the last few days fall away. Even the Goddess’s prophetic vision seemed to fall away. 

Rey wasn’t concerned with any future promises, because, right now, all she wanted was to live in this moment, with Kylo, for as long as possible.

—

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Thank you so much for reading (especially my gift recipient)! I have made this fic Part 1 in a series because, as my beta put it, “you can’t give your characters magical powers and then NOT have them use them during sex.” So I will be posting an E-rated epilogue as Part 2. Please subscribe to the series if that’s something you’re interested in reading!


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